IKEA designs future autonomous cars that work as hotels, stores, and meeting rooms

Baker Stuart’s Insight: Is this the future of the mobile office? Ikea Labs thinks their autonomous cars which can serve as an ‘Office on Wheels’ could be. Their designs are envisaged as a way for us to work smarter; so in the future we could be holding meetings while watching the world go by, without having to leave the office.

Once cars can finally drive themselves, we’ll have more time to enjoy the journey and do other, much more interesting stuff instead. At least that’s the concept behind some of the designs below, developed by retail giant IKEA’s “future living lab,” SPACE10 , based in Copenhagen.

The design studio/research lab came up with designs for autonomous vehicles that would be extensions of our homes, offices, and local institutions. Some of its seven ideas, shown below, are almost practical. Who can’t imagine autonomously driven cafés or pop-up stores? In fact, they already exist in California—in the form of self-driving cars that have groceries stocked in their back seats .

Other concepts might need a bit more thought, particularly the ones that SPACE10 envisions delivering resources to underserved communities. It may be difficult, for example, for a self-driving health clinic to bring medical care to truly remote areas. Nevertheless, the designs are useful […]